Her throat was tight, but she was able to breathe out, “I love you.”
As the words left her mouth, her fantasy became reality and he eased himself inside of her. She gasped at his fullness as he drove deeper and deeper into her warmth until she enveloped him completely.
“Fuck,” he whispered as his forehead rested against hers, “you feel so good. So fucking good.”
He filled her so completely that the sensation was part pain, part ecstasy. She felt small beads of sweat forming on his back as he remained still waiting for her body to adjust to his size. As soon as she felt her inner walls beginning to pulse around his length, she dug her fingers into his shoulders and tilted her hips into his.
That was all the encouragement he needed. He moved above her, pulling out and pushing back in, with perfectly measured pumps. Each time he slid into her body, she felt a sharp stinging reminder of his size mixed with sweet shocks of bliss exploding throughout her body at the intense pressure and friction. Becca felt mindless with pleasure as his rhythm increased and he rocked inside of her over and over again in heated strokes.
Never before had Becca had an orgasm from actual sex. Oral sex, yes. And foreplay, yes. But penetration, no.
She was shocked to feel the tantalizing pull of a release building deep in her core. Arching her back, she lifted her hips to meet each of his possessive thrusts. Rolling waves of bliss rippled through her, and she knew she was at the verge of one of the biggest orgasms of her life.
“Brian,” she rasped out, “I think I’m…I’m going to…”
“Come,” he gently commanded.
Their lips met in a heated joining. Becca kissed him with all the pent-up passion she felt. Brian kissed her back with hot urgency. His kiss sent new spirals of ecstasy rolling through her. Pleasure lashed through her and her body convulsed from the sheer force of her shuddering orgasm.
As she crested up and over the peak of her release, she heard Brian moan as his back tensed above her. He filled her in one swift motion, burying himself deep inside of her, sending another spasm of arousal to shoot through her.
The tension drained from her limbs as she started floating down from the clouds of decadent pleasure. When she was able to open her eyes and be somewhat aware of her surroundings, she felt Brian still inside of her, his head beside her, his body collapsed half on the bed, half on her.
She looked over at him and ran her hands through his silky hair.
“That was…” he rasped, his heavy-lidded eyes searching for the right words to say.
“Perfect,” Becca finished.
“Perfect.” He nodded, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her with him as he rolled over on his back.
Laying her head on Brian’s chest, her body still buzzing with satisfaction, she closed her eyes, knowing that this night, this perfect night, was definitely a ‘handful’ moment.
Chapter Twenty-One
A yawn, loud enough to wake the dead, escaped Becca’s mouth as she stretched her hands above her head while walking down the stairs, foggy headed and still not totally awake. With each step she took, her body reminded her of the night before by being sore in places she wasn’t normally (or ever!) sore in. Not that she needed reminding. No siree Bob—last night would be forever imprinted in her memory, her heart, her soul.
Just thinking about it, now, made tingles spread throughout her aforementioned sore area. She could still feel the sting of Brian’s fingers as they dug into her hip, the softness of his lips as they explored her entire body, the weight of his body on top of hers, the fullness as he moved inside of her. It had been the most erotic, intimate, intense night of her life.
She’d never understood why people loved sex so much. Sure, she’d been with a few people before Brian, but she’d never experienced anything like what she felt last night. If that’s what sex was supposed to feel like, then she had obviously been doing it wrong and had definitely been doing it with the wrong people.
But the question remained—what did last night mean? They hadn’t really talked about that. It had just all started happening, it was incredible, and the next thing Becca knew, she’d woken up to an empty bed with a note that said Brian had had to go open the garage because Josh was sick.
Becca had seen Josh last night at the wedding, so she thought that his being sick might have a lot to do with the fact that he’d been playing drinking games with the guys from Chase’s band, Midnight Rush. Not that there was anything wrong with that. No way would she have been able to work the day after her sister Haley’s wedding. She’d been toasted.
As she moved down the last step, Becca’s stomach growled loudly.
Hmmm. Toast.
She would make toast and coffee. Wait. She smelled coffee.
Had Brian made coffee before he’d left?
As she rounded the corner, her question was answered. Haley sat reading a book at the table, a cup of coffee in hand.
“Hey, Hales,” Becca said, her voice sounding as rough as sandpaper. Clearing her throat, she moved to grab a cup of coffee and pop some toast in the toaster before sitting down with her sister.
“Sit,” Haley said in her ‘mom’ voice. “I’ll get your coffee. And are you hungry? Do you want some oatmeal?”
“Toast.” Becca had never been so grateful for her big sister’s nurturing nature as she was right in this moment.
Shuffling over to the table in her slippers, she sat and another doozy of a yawn escaped her mouth.
“I saw Brian leave this morning,” Haley said casually. Her back was facing Becca, so all she could see was her sister’s long, blond hair cascading down her back. She couldn’t see the look in her eye to see if she knew or not. Haley’s voice went up an octave as she asked, “Did you not get much sleep last night?”
Yep. She knew.
Becca was not ready to talk about anything, especially until she talked to Brian.
“Actually, I can’t remember the last time I slept that good.” Which was totally true. Becca had slept like a rock. No tossing and turning with thoughts of Brian running through her head. She’d slept in the best place in the world—wrapped in Brian’s arms.
At that thought, she felt herself getting a little misty-eyed, and for the first time since she’d woken up, she also felt a little anxious. Maybe it was because it had taken her a minute to wake up, and now that she was really coming to, she realized that she’d had sex with Brian. Still, even as she waited for the panic to rise up within her, she didn’t regret it. Not one iota. Because now, no matter what happened, she’d always have last night.
One perfect night.
“Thanks, sissy,” Becca said as Haley brought over the coffee and buttered toast, which Haley had prepared like they used to eat when they were kids—with sprinkled sugar and cinnamon—and sat quietly while Becca drank the hot java and ate her cinnamon-sugar toast.
After finishing her first cup of coffee and two scrumdiddlyumptious pieces of toast, Becca felt semi-human again.
As she stood to pour herself another cup of liquid energy, Haley asked, “Soooo, are things okay with you and Brian?”
“Yep,” Becca immediately shot back. “I mean…yeah… I think so.”
Grabbing the pot, Becca tried to assure herself that things had to be okay. Right? This was her and Brian. Yes, they’d had sex, but they were still them.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Haley’s brow rose as Becca once again took her seat across from her sister.
“No.” That was an answer she was absolutely certain of.
“Okay.” Haley leaned forward, and Becca saw a glimmer of excitement in her eye.
Hmmm. Odd.
Haley laid her perfectly manicured hands flat on the table. “Then can we talk about Colton?”
Becca’s head fell back and she laughed. When she raised her head back up, her sister still had the same excited look in her eye. “Are you fan-girling over Colton?”
Haley lifted her hand, her forefinger and thumb a
bout an inch apart, and tilted her head as she scrunched her nose. “Maybe just a little bit.”
Becca smiled. When she had a layover in Miami, she hadn’t been able to count the number of Team Colton fans who had come up and asked what he was really like, if he was really hot in person, if he really had an accent. The same look she’d seen in those teeny-bopper fans, she saw in her sister’s eyes now.
“I mean, of course, he’s no Eddie.” The moment Haley spoke her husband’s name, she looked like she should have little hearts circling around her head. “But he just seemed so…”
“Manly? Alpha?” Becca offered.
“Yes.” Haley pointed at her sister like she’d nailed it on the head.
“He is. And he’s a really nice guy.” Becca couldn’t help but smile when she thought about her ‘prince.’
“So, is he… I mean, do you think you guys will… Is he…?” Haley waved her hands like she was trying to come up with the right words.
“Is he my fairytale love?” Becca joked.
“You know what I mean. Does he know about Brian? Do you two really get along like it seems on the show? Are there sparks? Does he think you guys are really a couple?” Haley asked all in one breath.
Becca had figured this was going to come up. If it hadn’t been Krista’s wedding yesterday, she was sure it would have come up earlier. “Yes, Colton figured out how I felt about Brian. Apparently, I am not that good of an actress. And he’s totally cool with it.” Becca chuckled. “We had a lot of time at the resort last week. Especially, since we were sleeping in the same room with no camera crews. We started talking and he admitted that he actually had a one-that-got-away. It was his high school girlfriend. He still sounded pretty hung up on her. And when he asked me about Brian, I don’t know if it was all the cosmos I’d had, but I confessed like he was a priest and I was in a confessional.
“Then he just smiled and said that he knew it would never work out between us. I said, ‘Yeah, because we’re both in love with other people.’ He said, ‘No, because you’re a vegetarian and I’m a cattle rancher.’”
Haley’s eyes widened and she laughed. “That’s so funny. I didn’t even think about that.”
“I didn’t either, but it’s true.”
“So, what if you guys win? What are you going to do?” Haley’s face looked sympathetic.
“I guess we’ll talk about it then.” Becca shrugged. “He said he wouldn’t mind doing the other show and collecting the money. He went on the show for his sister who is in remission, but has leukemia. I guess she’s been happier than he’s heard her in a long time seeing him on TV and also seeing all the fans”—Becca inclined her head towards Haley, indicating that she was one—“that Colton has.”
“So it would be like a business arrangement?” Haley asked. Her tone was not judgmental at all, but Becca could definitely hear the concern in her sister’s voice.
“I guess.” Becca hadn’t really thought of it like that. She’d been thinking of it as more like honoring her contract…which now she saw was exactly a business arrangement.
“What about Brian?”
Good question. Unfortunately, Becca had no answer for it—at least not until she talked to him.
“Well,” Haley said brightly, probably picking up on the fact that Becca was at a loss for words, “you guys are coming to the viewing party tonight, right?”
“Viewing party?” Becca had no idea what her sister was talking about.
“Yeah, at The Grill. Every Sunday night, they put the show up on the big screens.” Haley lifted her hands animatedly, as if displaying the televisions. She seemed beside herself with excitement about it.
Becca did not feel the same. Of course, she knew that people were watching her. She wasn’t delusional. But there was a big difference between people watching in the privacy of their own homes and the entire town gathering together to watch it on big screen TVs at the local sports bar and grill.
“I haven’t even seen the show,” Becca explained, her voice cracking slightly.
Haley clapped her hands together, “Oooh good. This will be so fun. You look amazing on it. And Amber has had so many orders that she’s hired Sophie full time as her merchandising manager.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Becca was actually happy that Amber’s dresses had seen an uptake in sales. They were incredible, so she wasn’t surprised. And Sophie, who was married to her cousin Bobby—the youngest of the Sloan boys—had been looking for full-time work.
“Okay. I’ll see you tonight. I have to go open Tempting. Oh, and I brought you these.” Haley pulled out a bag from behind her chair and handed it to Becca before giving her a quick hug.
“What’s this?”
Haley looked over her shoulder as she headed towards the door, “I thought you might want to up your lingerie game.” Her sister winked and then was out the door.
Becca slowly opened the black bag with the word ‘Tempting’ written in pink across it in cursive. She pulled out a satin bra-and-panty set that was a lot racier than anything Becca had ever worn. Next, there was a see-through lace set that made Becca blush just from holding it. There were several more combinations of bras and panties, all equally blush-worthy.
Becca had never seen herself as particularly sexy. But she had to admit that she wanted Brian to see her in all of these.
* * *
“All right. We’ll call you when it’s ready. I’ll get it back to you tonight,” Brian assured a customer that was worried she wouldn’t have her car back to get to work tomorrow.
Setting the phone back on the receiver, he saw that, while he’d taken that call, he’d received four new messages. He wanted to pick up the phone and throw it through the window.
Last week, when his dad had decided that he didn’t need to listen to his doctors or even honor the promise he’d made to his son and had come into the shop, he’d sent Josh home saying that he wanted to give him a break because his cousin had been working so hard since Brian had been gone, which was true. Josh had been working like a dog to keep this place running in Brian’s absence, but his dad should not have sent him home.
He hadn’t just overdone it physically, he’d actually over-committed to repairs that they would have had a hard time completing even if Brian, his dad, and Josh were all here fulltime. In four days, he’d overextended them to the point that it would take both Josh and Brian at least a week to dig out of it.
What was Dad thinking? Brian asked himself as he looked through the invoices and order forms. There was no way he could have actually thought he could get all of this done.
His cell phone buzzed and he saw it was a text from Becca.
It read: Can you meet me at The Grill? I guess they’ve been having viewing parties for the show, I don’t want to face it alone… xoxo
He’d texted her earlier to say that he would stop by after work. Getting out of bed this morning and leaving her had been the hardest thing Brian had ever done. If he had it his way, they’d still be in bed, right now, and they’d stay there for a week, a month—hell, forever.
Every fantasy he’d had of what being with Becca would be like hadn’t even come close to scratching the surface of what the reality of being with her had been. It wasn’t just the earth-shattering physical aspect. Brian had never, never felt that connected to another person before. He’d heard the phrases “I couldn’t tell where I ended and they began” “Two becoming one” and “Losing yourself in another person.” But he’d never experienced any of them—until last night.
When he had been making love to Becca, it had been more than just sex—more than even making love. Something had happened. It hadn’t just been their bodies that had connected. It had been their souls.
He didn’t know how it was all going to work out, how they were going to work out, but he did know that, after last night, Becca was his and he was hers. And he didn’t give a shit about a TV show or them living in different states or…anything else. All he cared about was that they
were each other’s—officially.
Brian typed: Yeah. Things are a little crazy here. I’ll get there as soon as I can. I love you.
For as long as he could remember, he’d told her that he loved her whenever they got off the phone or when he’d drop her off at the airport, but he’d never texted it before. It felt like…more.
Before he even set the phone down, it buzzed again.
He picked it up, and it read: I love you, too! Last night was…perfect.
A smile spread on his face as a happiness so raw, so full, filled him completely. Just as he was getting ready to text her back, his office door opened. He looked up. “Can you give me a—”
He stopped when he saw his mom seated in her wheelchair in the doorway. Tears were running down her cheeks.
Brian’s chest tightened and his stomach dropped to the floor. “Dad?” he breathed as he stood.
“No, sorry. It’s not Dad.” His mom sniffed and waved her hand dismissively.
She rolled in and shut the door behind her, and Brian sat, feeling like his world had just been shaken. Even though it had only been for a second, he’d really thought his dad was gone.
“Well, I mean, your dad is fine, but he is the reason I’m upset.” His mom continued to sniff as she searched through her purse.
“Here,” Brian said as he reached across the desk and handed her a tissue.
She looked up at him and got even more choked up as she took the tissue and blew her nose. “Thanks,” she said, setting the tissue on her lap. Then, after taking a deep breath, she said, “I’m sorry that I have to tell you what I’m about to say. I feel horrible for dumping this on you. It’s just I don’t know who else to talk to…” She started crying hard again, and Brian stood and walked around the desk, pulling up a chair next to her.
“It’s okay, Mom. I’m here,” he said, trying to comfort her as he rubbed her back while she cried.
Brian had no idea what she was about to tell him, but he did know it was bad. His mom was not big on dramatics. Trying to prepare himself for the worst, he waited patiently while she composed herself enough to speak again.
Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian Page 20